Whispers are getting louder on who dropped the ball:
Obama has repeatedly blamed BP for the spill, telling the nation in a televised Oval Office address on June 15: “We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused.” A day later he pressured BP to set aside $20 billion to pay economic damage to the region.
But in the critical first days after the explosion, the new report reveals the U.S. Coast Guard disregarded its own firefighting policy and might have caused the oil rig to sink -- prompting the leak that resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
Evidence unearthed by reporters Aaron Mehta and John Solomon shows the cash-strapped Coast Guard broke its own rules and didn't have a firefighting expert on the scene to oversee the private boats battling the blaze. There's an ongoing investigation to determine if the salt water sprayed on the burning oil rig caused it to sink.
"[T]he question of what caused the platform to collapse into the Gulf ... remains unanswered and could prove vital to ongoing legal proceedings and congressional investigations," the article states. "That is because the riser pipe from which the majority of BP’s oil spewed did not start leaking until after the rig sank."
These new details raise serious questions for the White House, which has repeatedly pinned the blame on BP. If it turns out the Coast Guard is at fault -- either because it didn't follow proper procedures or couldn't respond adequately because of a lack of resources -- the public has a right to know why we're just now learning this information 100 days after the disaster began.
Stay tuned.
